This invention relates to an apparatus for detecting and maintaining the level of a liquid and more particularly relates to a device for monitoring the level of the liquid in a container filling machine having a doughnut shaped rotatable filler bowl, an inlet for receiving liquid and a plurality of outlets for filling containers with liquid from the bowl.
Heretofore, the liquid level in such doughnut shaped filler bowls has been monitored by a device located in and rotating with the filler bowl. The signal generated by this device would be fed along lines from the bowl to the central opening and up to a point above the bowl and then back out across the bowl to a control station outside the perimeter of the bowl. Such a system has a number of obvious drawbacks including the positioning and maintaining of the physical transmission lines from the monitoring point to the control station. The continuous rotation of the bowl adds to the difficulty of maintaining such transmission lines.
Liquid measuring devices such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,102,615 to Cubite, measure the amount of liquid in a container by means of a float. However, the '615 device does not automatically fill the tank or vary the rate of flow of liquid into the tank.
Other devices, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,227 to Hunter, vary the rate of flow of a liquid in response to a liquid level detection device. However, the '227 device requires physical connections between the float and the float position detector, resulting in the same disadvantages posed by the devices currently in use.
It is desirable to provide a liquid level monitoring device for use with a rotatable filler bowl that eliminates the physical connections presently used by the prior art and which automatically controls the rate of flow into the bowl depending on the level of the liquid in the bowl.